Hand-Held Executions [Paperback]

Joan Houlihan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2003

With sensuous diction and a dead-on voice remarkable for its emotional honesty, these poems combine a reverence for beauty with the need for psychological truth. The stakes are high in these poems; the drive toward the emotional core exhilarating. Bristling with imagery that gains its brilliance through its down-to-the-core connections to an inner life, Joan Houlihan takes us on a wild and profoundly satisfying poetic journey, with a sound and gorgeous fury signifying everything along the way.

from: "Winifred is Listening":

I am dropping my objects
from a greater height:
Spoon. Needle. Belt.
Blame it on having my fingers pulled straight.
An addiction to hearing things hit.
Blame my eye, where a small eclipse floats.

Providing a context for the poems, Ms. Houlihan’s first five critical essays in the Boston Comment series, already known by many through Web del Sol and Arts and Letters Daily, are collected here.

from: I=N=C=O=H=E=R=E=N=T: On Language Poetry

"Armed with an inexhaustible talent for rationalizing their poetic incoherence, Language Poets formed along the roots of traditional poetry like fungi, sprouting a twisted tendril called ‘The New Sentence.’ Of course, this new sentence was not really a sentence at all (further evidence of how meanings aren't necessary to the words they come with)."

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Joan Houlihan has already garnered a following for her dark-edged, emotionally stunning poetry and for her witty and hard-hitting "Boston Comment" series on contemporary poetry. This spectacular debut delivers both poetry and essays and is among the first books launching Del Sol Press, a new and cutting-edge independent press from Web del Sol.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Del Sol Press (June 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615123112
• ISBN-13: 978-0615123110
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,116,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joan Houlihan's most recent book of poetry is The Us (Tupelo Press), named as a "must read" book of 2009 by Massachusetts Center for the Book. She is also author of The Mending Worm, winner of the 2005 Green Rose Award from New Issues Press and Hand-Held Executions: Poems & Essays.

Her work has appeared in many journals, including Boston Review, Poetry, Harvard Review, Gettysburg Review, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Black Warrior Review, Gulf Coast and Pleiades, among others, and has been anthologized in The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries (University of Iowa Press, 2005) and The Book of Irish-American Poetry--Eighteenth Century to Present (University of Notre Dame Press, 2007). Her critical essays on contemporary poetry are archived online at Bostoncomment.com. She is managing editor of the Contemporary Poetry Review.

Houlihan is founder of the Concord Poetry Center in Concord, Massachusetts and the Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference. She has been a visiting professor in Columbia University's graduate MFA Writing Program and Emerson College in Boston. She is on the faculty of Lesley University's Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where's all the controversy?, January 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Hand-Held Executions (Paperback)

Considering that Houlihan has earned the ire (or admiration, depending on whom you talk to) of many contemporary poets and poetry readers for her attacks on so-called senseless and "denatured" po-mo poetry, I'm surprised to see that her actual poems haven't generated much discussion. This is a strong book of poetry, with her always entertaining essays. Recommended.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasure In Poetry, January 26, 2004

By 

Paul Oly (Newton, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hand-Held Executions (Paperback)

It's not a habit of mine to pick up books of poetry -- even in a bookstore. But what on earth could that title mean? -- and those nails in a post?

I expected lines as jumbled or dreary as those in other poetry books I happen upon -- like the Best Poems of 19-- or 200- which I do glance at some years, only to put down feeling like an ignoramus -- or a dupe, or some of both.

But these were breath-catching poems! -- and fun! I gasped and giggled in that public place, and bought the book.

At home I started again at the beginning and read all the poems for pure pleasure, and went on to the essays out of a sense of duty. But in the essays I rediscovered my (poetic) self respect. The reason I don't like new poetry is not my lack of wit, it is that new poetry is trash, most of it -- pure pretentious piffle! My disinterest was a sign of my good judgement.

If you once liked poetry and want to gasp and giggle again, and to feel good about your judgement, get this book!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasure In Poetry, January 26, 2004

By 

Paul Oly (Newton, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hand-Held Executions (Paperback)

It's not a habit of mine to pick up books of poetry -- even in a bookstore. But what on earth could that title mean? -- and those nails in a post?

I expected lines as jumbled or dreary as those in other poetry books I happen upon -- like the Best Poems of 19-- or 200- which I do glance at some years, only to put down feeling like an ignoramus -- or a dupe, or some of both.

But these were breath-catching poems! -- and fun! I gasped and giggled in that public place, and bought the book.

At home I started again at the beginning and read all the poems for pure pleasure, and went on to the essays out of a sense of duty. But in the essays I rediscovered my (poetic) self respect. The reason I don't like new poetry is not my lack of wit, it is that new poetry is trash, most of it -- pure pretentious piffle! My disinterest was a sign of my good judgement.

If you once liked poetry and want to gasp and giggle again, and to feel good about your judgement, get this book!